Remembering the Sacrifice of the Soviet Red Army on Holocaust Remembrance Day (26.1.2018)

At a time in history when the Soviet Red Army involvement in the ‘Liberation’ of the Auschwitz Concentration and Extermination Camp is played-down or denied by certain sectors of the Jewish and non-Jewish community, Holocaust Memorial Day at the Imperial War Museum takes place next to the Soviet War Memorial. Winston Churchill referred to Red Army reports of Nazi German mass extermination camps as ‘Soviet propaganda’. Most other such ceremonies will not mention the Soviet sacrifice and I think this corner of the UK might well be unique throughout the Western world. The following is an email from the Society for Co-operation in Russian and Soviet Friendship. Six millions Jews, and five million disabled, homosexuals, Communists, anti-Nazis and the racially inferior were murdered during the Holocaust by the Nazi Germans. Casualties of dead and wounded (both military and civilian) throughout the Soviet Union amounted to around forty million men, women and children. ACW (16.1.2018)

Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony – Friday 26 January 2018

[Please note that due to HMD itself falling on a Saturday this year, the 2018 ceremony is taking place on FRIDAY 26 JANUARY]

On behalf of the Trustees of the Soviet Memorial Trust Fund [SMTF] and the Mayor of Southwark, I would like to invite you to attend this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration on Friday 26 January 2018, organised by the SMTF, Southwark Council and the Imperial War Museum [IWM]. As you may be aware, HMD marks the date of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camps by the Soviet Red Army in 1945.

The commemoration begins with a brief wreath-laying ceremony at the Holocaust Memorial Tree and Soviet War Memorial which stand together in the Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park which surrounds the Imperial War Museum in London. Guests will then proceed inside the IWM for the contination of the event in the Cinema. Guests attending the indoor element of the event are invited to view the IWM’s Holocaust Exhibition after the ceremony concludes.

10.50 am – Gather at the entrance to GMH Park (in front of the IWM main entrance and near the park cafe), Lambeth Road, London SE1 6HZ

11.45 am – Indoor ceremony, hosted by the Mayor of Southwark, begins in the Cinema of the Imperial War Museum

12.50 pm – Indoor ceremony ends

NB: No seating is provided outdoors. This part of the event is expected to last no more than 20 mins.

Due to seating limitations, if you wish to attend the ceremony inside the Imperial War Museum, please contact the Mayor of Southwark’s Office directly on Tel: 020 7525 7303 or Eml: mayors.office@southwark.gov.uk as soon as possible.

If you intend to lay a wreath on behalf of an organisation or you will be carrying a standard, please reply directly to me at smtf@hotmail.co.uk by noon on Thu 25 Jan.